I just finished reading James Allen’s As You Think. Originally published in 1904, this is one of the original self-help books. Although I go to Ben Franklin. I think I am going to re-read the Autobiography as a matter of fact.

Anyway, you can get through this book in an hour or so. In a nutshell – there would be no “The Secret” without James Allen. This is the “power of positive thinking” – “positive mental attitude” – “positive visualization” and whatever else you’ve got.

He gets a little carried away when he starts talking about health. If you think healthy thoughts you will be healthy. If not, you will get some horrible sickness and die. You could probably rip those pages out of the book and not miss them.

Otherwise, a very solid book. An easy read. Very good for a “tune up”. I’ve been involved in a lot of change recently which always breeds uncertainty. I found this work to be comforting. It helped me focus my thoughts. I think it helped me maintain a positive focus.

If you are on a path of self-discovery, this should be in your library (or on your kindle).

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This is a work that does not just get “under your skin” – it gets into your cells. It becomes a part of you. And it starts to gnaw at you. Slowly. Quietly. Patiently. But it is always there – you fully absorb it.

The background. Donald Miller wrote a very successful book. Then wrote others that weren’t so successful. He was asked to help create a movie about his life story. A Million Miles…chronicles that process/journey.

He realizes that he does not really LIKE his life story and sets to writing a better story for himself.

In many ways, this book is the classic hero’s journey. It is the mono-myth. It is the call to “follow your bliss”.  Joseph Campbell, in his The Hero with a Thousand Faces captures this all brilliantly. Myths from all times and places essentially tend to contain all the same elements. From Campbell:

“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”

I thought I would show you a graphical representation of the hero’s journey:

Miller embarks on such a journey. This is a book about his change process. It is about coming to the realization that there simply has to be a better way for him to be leading his life. It is about coming to the conclusion that he is not happy and then systematically making changes. Gradual changes.

But those changes are part of his journey. Miller follows the classic steps of the journey. He gets helpers in the guys who help him write the movie. Not to mention help from Robert McKee, the great Hollywood teacher of screen writing.

There are challenges, He goes through the rebirth process. I would argue that there is even a re-baptism of sorts. Anytime there is water involved in part of a growth process, I always go to baptism. It is classic. He has revelations. I don’t know if he “atones” – but there is certainly a transformation. He makes the changes he wants to make.

This is a very inspiring book. I recognize myself in the early pages.

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In case you haven’t noticed – in the last 30-50 years – the world has moved on. This has been made very clear in the last 3 years or so where the U.S. has gone through the worst financial crisis since the depression. The way we work has changed.

You can’t be a cog in the machine any more. Godin, urges us to be linchpins. Artists. He borrows heavily from Stephen Pressfield’s “resistance” – that force of nature that holds us back, makes us second guess ourselves.

I’ve recently gone through a process of interviewing people for a position I have open. It hasn’t gone well. Rochester, NY was once the home of such GIANTS as Kodak, Xerox, and Bausch and Lomb. These companies are no longer giants. They are mere shells of their former glory. They grew a culture of entitlement. If I stay at Xerox for 20+ years as a project manager making $100+k a year but never actually DOING anything – all is great. But enter 2008 and the economic collapse. Guess what – you’re not worth $100+k a year. I can find someone better for half that amount.

Harsh. But true. Seth, as always, is here to help.

For Godin, linchpin means being an artist. To relate it to Pressfield, I think linchpin=artist while professional=artist therefore linchpin=professional. In a VERY strict sense of the word. Getting up every day, getting your tool bag, punching the clock and creating masterful work. These are the things Godin is encouraging. Showing up isn’t enough.

The system taught us and encouraged us to just show up, keep our heads down and we will be rewarded. And that worked pretty well until globalization really started to kick into gear. Showing up isn’t going to get it done. Because for every one of you there are 5 people in Chennai and another 5 in Shanghai and another 5 in Brazil that got up before you and are better educated and are figuring out, as you sleep, how to do your job better and cheaper.

This is just one of those books. You should read it. You should read Godin’s “The Dip” right after. These two books go hand in hand.

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“From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remember’d;

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he today that shed his blood with me

Shall be my brother.”

“Fair Katharine, and most fair,

Will you voudhsafe to teach a soldier terms

Such as will enter at a lady’s ear

And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?…

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I really can’t recommend The Art of the Start enough. I consider this a core, must read book. I’m very fond of the chapter: “The Art of Bootstrapping”. It is all about execution. You can have the best idea, the best people but none of it matters unless you can flat out GET.IT.DONE.

Kawasaki provides a few recommendations for how to execute:

1. Set and communicate goals. Everyone working from the same playbook.
2. Measure progress. “What gets measured gets done.” Kawasaki quotes this too. Corny? Yes. Does it work? EVERY TIME!
3. Establish a single point of accountability. Its motivational.
4. Reward the achievers. Forget the people sitting in the back seat.
5. Follow through until an issue is done or irrelevant. Kill it.
6. Heed Morpheus. Get real.
7. Establish a CULTURE of execution. “…execution is a culture that produces a set of organizationwide habits.”

Let that last bit sink in.

“…execution is a CULTURE that PRODUCES a set of organizationwide HABITS.”

I love it.

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I recently finished reading Guy Kawasaki’s “The Art of the Start”. Great book. Must read. Anyone buying, selling or processing anything should read this at least once.

One section really resonated with me. Especially since I just completed my series of posts on Running a Successful Turnaround. In Chapter 5: The Art of Bootstrapping, Guy recommends “taking the red pill”. In the movie, The Matrix, the main character, Neo, takes the red pill and comes face to face with the real reality.

Guy then goes on to recommend the 10 Most Important Questions You Can Ask to discover your reality. They are:

1. When is your product or service going to be ready for market?
2. What are your true, fully loaded costs of operations?
3. When will you run out of money?
4. How much of your sales pipeline is going to convert?
5. How much of your account receivables is collectible?
6. What can your competition’s product or service do that your’s can’t?
7. Who are your non-performing employees?
8. Are you doing all you can to maximize shareholder value?
9. What is your organization doing to change the world and make meaning?
10. How good are you as the leader of the organization?

Very, very powerful questions. Kawasaki goes on to recommend that every leader finds herself a “Morpheus” – the name of the character in The Matrix that encouraged Neo to gain enlightenment. By asking these questions and honestly answering them, you to can achieve business enlightenment.

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I finished Seth Godin’s Linchpin a couple of weeks ago. I loved it. It is a very compelling read. It certainly makes you think. It is provoking. It is meant as a challenge.

Artists think along the edges of the box, because that’s where things get done.

Godin disputes thinking “outside the box” – and I like it. Outside the box is just emptiness. “Nothing to work against,” he says. I like that. I really agree with the concept of challenging the edges of the box.

You can live there. You can push the edges and still be considered an artist.

By the way…Godin says we all need to be artists now. He takes Tom Peter’s “brand you” concept and extrapolates it out. Peters was almost precognitive in his brand you challenges. Well…the time is now REALLY upon us. Godin takes it the next step – brand you means you need to be an artist.

Read the book.

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Just finished reading Roughneck Nine-One: The Extraordinary Story of a Special Forces A-Team at War by Sgt. 1st Class Frank Antenori, US Army (Retired).

Loved it. If you like a solid, action-packed ride – this is a book for you. I read a lot of military history and analysis. I am a geek this way.

Sgt. Antenori, during the After Action Review (AAR) section of the book, lays out the four fundamental ideas of the Special Forces system. First, I love that he calls it a system. It is a WAY of doing things. Love it. Second, I love the AAR. Every operation gets pulled apart for a lessons learned.

The fundamentals are something that every successful team can use. I have adapted them here:

• People are more important than stuff. (Soldiers are more important than hardware).
• The quality of these people – “maturity, courage, technical skills, cultural sensitivity, and language proficiency, and their ability to lead AND follow [my emphasis on the "AND"] – that is the foundation of our effectiveness.”
• The PROCESS [again, my emphasis] of producing good people is a “long, slow, and expensive one”. Lower standards and quicker training simply does not work.
• The process of “minting competent”…”people can’t be accelerated.”

So easy yet so hard. The first thing the suits want to cut is training. I have seen this time and time again. Not hiring the right people, not giving them adequate training, giving up too quickly once they are out of initial training.

In my last position at a learning solutions company no client ever wanted the best results. They wanted a rubber stamp. They wanted fast and cheap. They never wanted to produce the best results.

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I suppose I should start this review off with a disclaimer. I am Alan Webber’s target audience. He was a managing editor of the Harvard Business Review and the cofounding editor of Fast Company. I am a card carrying member of the Fast Company Nation and read HBR whenever something catches my eye.I am a change agent. I am a free agent. I bought into the Brand You the day it was published.

Oh – and Webber is an INDEX CARD GUY!

I don’t know when I started with the index cards. But I have been doing it for a very long time and I have even managed to get my 8 year old daughter sucked into it.

I really enjoyed this book. Webber collects insights from his global experiences with LEADERS. It seemed stupid for me to list the various types of leaders there. The common denominator is a strong sense of leadership. And really…this book is a primer on 21st century leadership skills.

Webber touches on many of my favorite thought leaders: Tom Peters, Jim Collins and Mike Abrashoff. He invokes Jerry Garcia -

You do not want to be considered just the best of the best. You want to be considered the only ones who do what you do.

He even talks about Springsteen!

This is a book that I know I will be returning too again and again. It is meant to be paged through. Dog-earred. Underlined. Highlighted. It will provide a framework rooted in Toyota, John Boyd, systems thinking, and Drucker/Peters/Collins.

It will provide tools like the mathematical formula for change:

C(SQ) > R(C)

Change MUST happen if the cost of the status quo is greater than the risk of change. I seriously think I may go get this tattooed somewhere. Like across my chest – like Superman’s “S”.

And, in many ways, this formula is somewhat at the core of this collection. Let’s face it – whatever it is we we’re doing – was NOT working. And even in the face of the storm, we are still denying that change MUST happen. The status quo is killing us yet we won’t get over ourselves and embrace a tiny bit of risk for the potential promise of BETTER.

So – its a list of 52 rules. Here are my favorites – because these are some of MY rules too.

#3 – have a clear definition of success. This should be number 1. And maybe you don’t even need other rules. Why are we sitting in this meeting listening to someone read their Powerpoint to us?

#4 – Root cause analysis PREVENTS defects. It is not enough to solve problems.

#7 – “Systems thinkers see the relationships, not the functions. They see the processes…” (I am actually going to go update all my stupid social media profiles with the fact that I consider myself a systems thinker.)

#14 – genchi genbutsu

#19 – Drucker begat Collins – managers should stay out of the workers’ collective kool-aid and let them do their jobs. Stop interfering.

#20 – John Boyd’s OODA loops. Observation. Orientation. Decision. Action. “Speed IS a strategy.:

#41 – Abrashoff of the USS Benfold – grassroots leadership.

WELL worth your dollars, folks. This is a book you don’t have to read cover to cover. This is a book you can get INTIMATE with – keep it nearby. Pick it up when you can. Read a rule. Let it sink in. Kick it around. Talk amongst yourselves.

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